EDWARDSVILLE — As the two head coaches walked up to the plate for the umpire’s meeting, it seemed like just another simple game.

But when Carrollton’s Jeff Krumwiede and Dieterich’s Josh Krumwiede shook hands, it was more than that. This was father against son, for the first time on the diamond. This one was special.

And in the end, Dad for the best of Kid, and if the inaugural ‘Battle of the Birds’ is a table-setter for what the two schools hope to make an annual event — as long as the Krumwiede’s are at each respective helm — then this should be quite the baseball event.

Carrollton rallied for three runs in the bottom of the sixth, highlighted by Gabe Jones’ two-run double that tied it before scoring on a fielder’s choice groundout, and Jones shut the door down in the seventh to pick up the win in a 5-4 Hawks victory over the Movin’ Maroons on Saturday at SIUE’s Roy E. Lee Field.

And in a game where there were no losers, at least not in the spirit of the game that was played in front of Jeff’s parents and Josh’s grandparents Erwin and Shirley Krumwiede, wife/mom Lisa Krumwiede, son/brother Tanner Krumwiede, who handled the PA for the game and daughter/sister Hannah, both sides felt good about coming away with a well-played ballgame.

“It was probably a little bit more emotional for dad than it was for son,” Jeff Krumwiede said. “The handshake after the umpire’s meeting was neat. But it was still a ballgame. We had kids to coach and so we didn’t want to turn it into something other than a ballgame between two teams that were hopefully evenly matched and boy, were we ever.”

Josh Krumwiede, in his second season coaching baseball at Dieterich like his dad coaching Carrollton in his second season, agreed.

“We’re both competitors, we both really want to win. At the end of the day, if your kids play the way you want them to play, it is a fun experience and you have to understand it’s not always about wins and losses,” Josh, a 2010 Carrollton graduate, said. “The kids had a lot of fun coming over here.”

Carrollton (12-4-1), coming off a 13-3 five-inning loss to Jersey on Friday, spotted the Movin’ Maroons a 4-1 lead in the fifth when Dieterich got a sacrifice fly from Bryce McClain to make it a 2-1 game after the Movin’ Maroons loaded the bases with two outs, and then Briar Schmidt followed with a two-out RBI double and Callaway Campton’s RBI single made it 4-1, but Jones was able to gun down Schmidt trying to score from second and that turned out to be an important play.

It all appeared well for Dieterich (7-4), which was no-hit in a 1-0 loss to Neoga on Friday, but the Hawks would rally.

Nathan Walker’s sacrifice fly off Evan Bohnhoff in the bottom of the fifth cut the deficit to 4-2 before the Hawks’ rally in the sixth.

Blake Struble led off with a single and advanced to second when Dieterich second baseman Matthew Hunzinger committed the lone error of the day when he dropped Tyler Barnett’s one-out liner. Hunzinger still had a play to make at second for the forceout when Struble was heading back to first thinking the ball would be caught, but Hunzinger’s throw to second was low and wide of shortstop Paul Thoele and everyone was safe.

That’s when Jones stepped to the plate and lined a 2-1 Bohnhoff offering off the plate into left-center to plate both Struble and Barnett to tie the game, and Jones moved to third on the throw home.

“It was low; it was real low,” Jones said of the pitch. “I had to go down and get it, but I made good contact. I wasn’t trying too hard to do anything too much. Just put the ball in play and put it right where I needed to put it.”

Jones would score what turned out to be the winning run on Garrett Settles’ ground ball to second. The Movin Maroons had the infield playing in but Hunzinger couldn’t field Settles’ ground ball cleanly and had to settle for the out at first.

“Fortunately, we were able to take advantage of a little bobble by them and then Jones came up with a big hit and he needed that,” Jeff Krumwiede said. “He made the throw from right field that prevented their sixth run and got us out of that inning, came in and shut the door down in the last two innings and got the big hit to tie the game.

“I was on him today about trying to pull the ball a little too much and getting his weight out too far. He’s got to concentrate on hitting the ball up the middle and then use the entire diamond. He’s got a big, long swing. When he hits it, he hits it hard. Luckily he made contact and that’s exactly what we needed and it was able to split them so we can get that guy in from first.”

It spoiled the efforts of Bohnhoff on the mound; he was making his first start after pitching in just one inning this season. Bohnhoff (0-1) allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits with one walk and four strikeouts.

“I told him after the game, I said, ‘Man, you really pitched a great game,’” Josh Krumwiede said. “I kind of went back and forth with my assistants trying to figure out if he’s OK. In hindsight, maybe they were getting to him there at the end and we could have gone to somebody else, but I had confidence in him and I thought he was doing a great job. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it and I was thinking if he can get us one more inning, but we may have pushed him a little too far. But he pitched really well.”

Jones came on in relief of starter Ethan Brannan, who came in with a 0.61 earned-run average, but allowed four runs (all earned) on eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts.

“I felt like pitch count was getting to the point where … we knew we had Gabe available,” Jeff Krumwiede said. “We don’t play again until Tuesday and Kolten Bottom will probably start that game against Calhoun. … Ethan didn’t have his best stuff today, but he battled it out and did a nice job.”

Jones (3-0) worked the final two innings and allowed one hit with one walk and three strikeouts.

“I love the pressure,” Jones said. “That’s why you play the game for moments like that. It was really nice to come in and perform well when I needed to. Last time on the mound, I struggled a little bit and today, I think I did a good job fixing my mechanics and pumping strikes, which is always good.

“… I’m happy for Coach K that he got to play against his son. It’s got to be a special moment for him, so that’s awesome. I could tell he’s been really excited about it all week leading up to it. He was real excited before the game. He preaches a no-nonsense approach and that’s what we had today.”

After the game ended, both teams took team photos separately and mixed in together, and the Krumwiede family also congregated by home plate for pictures before fans of both communities got together in the parking lot after for some getting-to-know time and a cookout.

“Obviously you want to win, but the fact we played well is good,” Josh Krumwiede said. “One inning got a hold of us there at the end, but definitely a neat game. We had all kinds of stuff going on with concessions, PA, pictures, pregame, all that stuff is really neat. The opportunity to play at SIUE is really cool. I’m glad we got to be a part of the experience.

“I really felt like we played good baseball up until the sixth inning. I told the guys errors happen, and our second baseman, who is sure-handed almost every day, had a couple miscues on that one play that kind of really broke our back, but to me, that wasn’t even the issue. There were a couple hits they had where we threw to the wrong base. One of the balls we threw in ricocheted and almost scored the next run, and the next inning, we threw home trying to get a guy, allowing that guy at second to advance to third so just a simple ground ball to win the game. To me, if I’m going to nitpick, that was the issue, but I’m really pleased with the way we hit the ball. I think we had eight or nine hits after being no-hit. It’s refreshing to see the guys get up there and feel confident.”

Jeff Krumwiede, who is now unbeaten against his son after Jeff’s basketball team beat Josh’s Staunton side when Josh was a coach with the Bulldogs during summer basketball, felt good about his team’s resolve as well and competing against his son.

“This was real,” Jeff said. “We tried to set it up last year and couldn’t get it done. We got it done this year and I’m really happy. I’m hoping it’s something we can continue to do. It’a a great facility. The [SIUE] people have been great. It was a great event for our family, but I hope it was a great event for everyone. The cookout/mixer that we’re having right now (after the game) is for everyone to get to know each other a little bit so Dieterich and Carrollton can become sister cities, if you will. They have something in common that Josh is a Carrollton boy. It’s a great experience and I’m happy it worked out well.

“We did some things right. Coming back from behind is something people have done to us this year. It’s nice to be on the other side.”